I don't believe anyone said that they are vaporware.
The arguments was -- they may either under-deliver on the specs or go above the $99 cost making it. It seemed pretty convincing to me (in the previous slashdot discussions)

Let's see where it goes

There is always a possibility they will run out of money before they ship all of them.

Quite. Here's another/. prediction that we all remember well:

Raise your hand if you have iTunes...

Raise your hand if you have a FireWire port...

Raise your hand if you have both...

Raise your hand if you have $400 to spend on a cute Apple device...

There is Apple's market. Pretty slim, eh? I don't see many sales in the future of iPod.

What the fuck is it with/. that attracts so many pessimistic know-it-alls who have to piss on everything on the day of its launch?